Twisted floors in weekly cycles

Mar 4, 2013

Evolution Tower, Moscow, Russia

Every week, Moscow´s new landmark is gaining 4.30 m in height – with each completed floor twisted 3° in relation to the preceding one. For this, PERI engineers developed a crane-independent formwork concept on the basis of the RCS and ACS self-climbing technology.

The 249 m high Evolution Tower is part of Moscow’s international trade centre, “Moscow City”, which is currently the largest investment project in the Russian capital. Due to the fact that each of the 52 upper floors is constantly twisted by 3° whilst being arranged around the central core of the building, the skyscraper experiences an elegant rotational movement in a clockwise direction from the base to the top by more than 150°.

Corner column formwork with additional benefits

The elegant rotation of the building is made even more striking through the spiral-shaped design of the distinctive rectangular columns on the building corners. The corner columns are thus not only inclined but also feature a twist. The project-specific PERI self-climbing formwork concept is based on ACS and RCS system components whilst a special gallows construction accelerates the shuttering and striking procedures. In addition, the climbing formwork for the rectangular columns fulfils two other tasks: in the area of the building corners, the external formwork serves as slab edge formwork when forming the floor slabs whilst the RCS formwork scaffold unit also acts as a climbing protection panel and thus part of the building enclosure.

Self-climbing core formwork

Core walls and floor slabs are concreted in one pour, with each floor divided into three concreting sections. Up to the 26th floor, four ACS P climbing units have been used to form generously-sized working platforms whilst VARIO GT 24 wall formwork elements serve as internal and external formwork. In addition, the core floor plan changes and, for this, one of the ACS platforms is quickly converted to a gallows variant through the use of four ACS G brackets. As a result, the following storeys can also be efficiently climbed. For forming the floor slabs, customized UNIPORTAL slab tables keep pace with the fast rate of working.

Rotating in safe conditions

The top three floors under construction are tightly enclosed with the RCS climbing protection panel. The units climb the constant twist of the building in an inclined position – also crane-independent with the help of the mobile climbing hydraulics. The permanently installed rail-guided system ensures a fast and safe climbing procedure also in inclined positions. The climbing rails are connected to the building by means of corresponding slab shoes. In combination with the four climbing units of the rectangular columns, a gap-free enclosure is achieved – for safe and quick working operations particularly at great heights.

Diagonally climbed and movable landing platforms

Furthermore, on the sides of the building, RCS landing platforms are climbed for use as temporary storage areas and for moving of loads with the crane. The climbing procedure also takes place here without a crane, hydraulically with the help of the mobile climbing devices. On its inclined climbing path, the continuous vertically positioned circular columns present a permanent obstacle. Therefore, the RCS platforms were so designed so that they can be temporarily moved on varying positions – by means of flexibly adaptable forward and reverse inclinations without any time-consuming modification work.

Test set-up as part of the overall solution

For PERI engineers, twisted high-rise buildings and inclined climbing procedures are nothing new: urban development highlights such as the Turning Torso in Sweden and the two Absolute World Towers in Canada likewise spiral upwards in a similar fashion – successfully realized with expert PERI support. The special feature of the Moscow EvolutionTower is the combined climbing formwork utilization for the vertical core walls and twisted corner supports in connection with the obliquely climbed protection panel and landing platform. In addition to the detailed formwork planning, a previously used test set-up was therefore an important part of the PERI overall solution. This meant that the applicability under construction site conditions could be demonstrated very early on, and the optimization potential for daily on-site working operations could be accelerated through fine-tuning adjustments.